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Chinese Lawsuit Seeks Return of Virtual Weapons

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the not-getting-what-you-play-for dept.

Howzer writes "In breaking news from behind the Great Firewall of China, an online gamer is suing JC Entertainment to force them to restore all of his Redmoon 'biological weapons' (his words) and compensate him for emotional damage. Some heavy hitters are lining up on both sides, as it appears the gamer has already had at least one day in court and may have several more. Now, this isn't the world's first by any means, but it's China's first, and China's fledgeling legal system often favours the little guy against big, faceless multinationals, especially when the law isn't clear. And if he wins, it will certainly put a dent in the fastest growing online gaming market on the planet." We've previously covered the early stages of this lawsuit.

2 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Hmm... by setzman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The article doesn't say how SHUILIU0011 stole the items. Did the guy use a decent password on his account, or was it some kind of crack that the thief used? However, you'd think they have some method of restoring the items if he could prove they were stolen by another user.

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  2. Re:No economic value? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Just because something doesn't hold the same (or any) value to you as it does to someone else doesn't mean it doesn't have economic value. It's the whole basis of what makes the world go round and prices fluxuate and such.

    One person says they'll buy X item for $10 while another will pay $30 and another won't pay more than $5 while another doesn't need X item and won't pay anything.

    Whether or not a game company says "X virtual has no economic value" is pretty pompus IMHO. That's like saying, "No, you don't want to give real cash to that seller for that magical sword" to all those thousands of people doing virutal item trades for real money every day. If a person values an item enough to put a cash value on it, I can't see how you can really stop them from buying it. It's like telling people what they can and can't do with their money for no reason whatsoever, especially since there are currently no laws in place to tell the person they CAN'T buy/sell something like that.